After a bit more kicking of furniture, walls, and floor had transpired, Giddon said to her, "Skye loves Po. This won't make him stop loving Po."
Katsa turned to Giddon with tears in her eyes. "He'll be so angry."
"He won't stay angry forever."
"Won't he?" she said. "People do sometimes."
"Do they?" he said. "Reasonable people? I hope that's not true."
Katsa gave him a funny look, but didn't answer. Resumed hugging herself and kicking things.
Bitterblue didn't want to go, but she had to; she had a meeting with Teddy in her tower. She was going to ask him if he mightn't like to work in her newly formed Ministry of Education, as an official representative adviser from the city. Part-time, of course. She wouldn't want to deprive him of the work he already loved.
* * * * *
THE MONSEAN GUARD was in too much disarray at the moment to press Bitterblue on the matter of whether her crown was missing. And so Saf had been allowed to go home, although Bitterblue was still nervous about it. The crown was missing, it was at the bottom of the river, and there had been witnesses. It did not seem the time in the High Court just now, while they were trying to restore a kind of honesty, for Bitterblue to lie or try to falsify evidence of a crown she could not produce.
She had not seen Saf since the night on the bridge. He was leaving with the Dellians in the morning. And so, just after sunset, Bitterblue ran through the snowy city to the shop.
Teddy answered her knock, grinned, bowed, and went away to rustle up Saf. She waited in the shop, shivering. The front wall and part of the ceiling, which had burned, were covered over with roughhewn planks that were not airtight. The room was very cold and smelled of burning; much of the furniture was gone.
Saf came in quietly, then stood there with his hands in his pockets, not saying anything. Glancing at her with a kind of shyness.
"You're leaving tomorrow," she said.
"Yes," he said.
"Saf," she said. "I have a question I need to ask you."
"Yes?"
She made herself watch his soft eyes. "If you weren't in trouble about the crown thing," she said, "would you still go away?"
The question made his eyes softer. "Yes."
She had known the answer before she'd asked. But hearing it still hurt.
"My turn," he said. "Would you stop being the queen for me?"
"Of course not."
"There, now," he said. "We've both asked each other the same question."
"We haven't."
"Have too," he said. "You asked me to stay, and I asked you to come with me."
Thinking about that, she came closer and reached for his hand. He gave it, and for a moment, she played with his rings, feeling the warmth of his skin in this cold room. Then, obeying her body, she kissed him, just to see what would happen. What happened was that he began to kiss her back. Tears slid down her face.
"It's one of the first things you told me about yourself," she whispered. "That you would go."
"I meant to do it sooner," he whispered back. "I meant to do it when things started to get tricky with the crown, to save myself. But then I couldn't. Not while we were still fighting."
"I'm glad you didn't."
"Did your dream work?"
"I walk on top of the world, and I'm not afraid," she said. "It's a beautiful dream, Saf."
"Tell me what other dream you want."
She wanted a thousand dreams. "Let me dream that we leave each other friends."
He said, "That's a true thing."
IT WAS LATE when Bitterblue returned to the castle. In her rooms, she held the fake crown in her hands, considering. Then she found Katsa and said, "Will you team up with Po on a certain matter for me? I have a special request."
Even later, Giddon came to fetch her.
"Did it work?" asked Bitterblue as they walked to Katsa's rooms together.
"It did."
"And is everyone all right?"
"Don't be alarmed when you see Po. His black eye is from Skye, not from this."
"Oh, no. Where is Skye? Should I talk to him?"
Giddon rubbed his beard. "Skye has decided to join the party going to the Dells," he said. "As Lienid's ambassador."
"What? He's leaving? He just got here!"
"I think he has a broken heart," said Giddon, "to match Po's black eye."
"I wish people would stop hitting Po," whispered Bitterblue.
"Well," Giddon said. "Yes. I'm hoping Skye is following my model. Punch Po; go on a long trip; feel